


Apples of My Eye

by SummerStormFlower



Category: DuckTales (Cartoon 2017)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe, Babies, Babysitting, Family Fluff, Fluff, Gen, The boys are adults, Twins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-17
Updated: 2020-03-17
Packaged: 2021-02-28 16:49:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23180476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SummerStormFlower/pseuds/SummerStormFlower
Summary: Huey and Dewey help Louie out with the whole ‘new parent’ thing.*continuation of “Thanks, Dad”*
Relationships: Dewey Duck & Huey Duck & Louie Duck
Comments: 16
Kudos: 118





	Apples of My Eye

**Author's Note:**

> I don’t think I would’ve actually written this if my dear friend Franki hadn’t inspired me so much. Thanks Franki!

Louie couldn’t remember the last time he’d gotten a full eight hours worth of sleep. Or the last time he actually went to bed. 

He’d been sleeping on the floor in his babies’ bedroom. It was uncomfortable—his back and shoulders paid for it every night—but he was closer to the girls that way. When one, or both of them, cried in the middle of the night, their crib was just two steps away. 

Eleonora (or Elly, for short) was a bundle of joy. She smiled easily and it was easy to make her laugh. The sound of her giggles made Louie’s heart do funny things. She didn’t cry much, too busy being a ray of pure sunshine. 

Mallory (Mal, for short) was... the opposite. She was a rather grumpy baby. There always seemed to be a frown etched on her beak and she cried a lot. Louie spent hours during the night, cradling her in his arms until she calmed down. She was a handful, but Louie loved her more than life itself nonetheless. 

It’d been a week since they’d come into Louie’s world. And he was managing... kind of. 

Uncle Scrooge was letting him take time off of work, as well as pitching in financially when Louie needed it. So it wasn’t like he was struggling to put food on the table or anything.

It was just... he was so exhausted. He swore if he ever heard anyone claim that being a parent was easy, he’d slap them upside the head. (How Uncle Donald had done it with three of them was beyond him).

Functioning on a mere two, maybe three, hours of sleep, Louie was slow that morning. He had Elly and Mal set up in their high chairs and was trying to keep his eyes open, while he fed them. 

Elly was patient with his sleep-deprived movements, opening her beak and swallowing the contents of her baby spoon without a fuss. 

Mal was not as forgiving, whining very loudly when she decided Louie was taking too long to feed her. 

When the front door suddenly burst open, Louie jumped. 

“Guess who! It’s UNCLE DEWEY!!!”

“With Uncle Huey too!”

Louie was huffing and puffing, trying to calm his racing heart, when his brothers appeared in the doorway of his kitchen. 

“Hey Lou,” Huey said with a wave. 

Louie sighed heavily, his heart finally settling.”What are you two doing here?”

The “and why didn’t you knock” went unsaid.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Dewey said with a grin, bouncing up to Elly and Mal and kneeling in front of them. “I’m here to see my favourite nieces, Emma and Mandy!” 

Louie arched an eyebrow at the back of his brother’s head. “Their names are Eleonora and Mallory.”

“Eleonora and Mallory!”

Louie rolled his eyes, but found he couldn’t really be upset when Dewey let Elly poke his face and made her laugh. 

“We’ve come to help you,” Huey explained, “Uncle D said you looked a little overwhelmed the last time he saw you.”

Louie gawked. “I am doing just fine!” he proclaimed. 

Huey smirked. “Yeah, I can tell by the bags under your eyes.”

Louie opened his beak to retort, but there was nothing he could say to that. 

“Take a break, bro. We’ll babysit for you!” said Dewey. He made silly faces at the girls. Elly giggled and Mal studied him curiously. 

“What do you know about babysitting?” Louie asked. 

“Come on, we babysit for Webby all the time!” Dewey said, finally turning to him. Elly patted the side of his head, wanting his attention again. He kissed her fingers and she giggled. 

“But Webby’s kids are...well...like her,” said Louie. He didn’t mean that in a bad way. He loved Webby and her four rascals. They were... just a little wild.

Okay, a lot wild. 

Dewey blinked at him, not knowing what he was getting at.

Louie rolled his eyes. “You can’t take my girls on adventures.”

“Of course not. They’re way too young,” said Huey. When Mal whined and held her little arms up, Huey took her out of her high chair. He propped her on his hip and she stared at him. Then she grabbed a handful of his shirt and started sucking on it. 

Louie made to protest, but a yawn cut him off. 

“Let us help, Lou,” Dewey said, eyes taking in his dishevelled look for the first time since they’d barged in.

Louie sighed, rubbing his forehead. He was really exhausted. 

“Fine,” he relented after a moment of thought, “but you’re in charge, Huey.”

Dewey’s jaw dropped and Huey grinned. 

“You can count on me, little bro!” 

Louie rolled his eyes again. Even into their twenties, Huey still insisted on calling him his little brother. 

“What do you mean Huey’s in charge?! He’s not babysitting me!” exclaimed Dewey, “I’m an adult!”

Louie gave him a look. “Were you planning on sledding down the stairs with my babies?” he asked seriously.

Dewey looked like a deer caught in headlights and he averted his gaze. “Whaaaat? Nooooo.”

Louie smiled and shook his head. “Like I said,” he yawned, eyelids hovering low over his eyes, “Huey is in charge.”  
_________________________

The sound of crying and arguing woke Louie up. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and looked at the clock. It was past lunch. Wow, he actually slept for more than two hours. 

He felt a little more energized. 

When the crying persisted and the arguing only got louder, Louie got out of bed to go see what all the ruckus was.

“That’s backwards!” That was Huey’s voice, laced with irritation. 

“Does it matter?” Dewey.

“Yes, it does!”

“Then you do it! This is hard!”

“You’re hopeless!”

Louie smiled a little. Whatever was going on, he was sure it’d be amusing. 

And it was. 

His brothers were in his babies’ bedroom, attempting to change Mal’s diaper. Elly was nearby on the floor with toys around her, but her gaze was on her uncles. She was laughing at them. 

Meanwhile, Mal was crying her head off. 

Louie didn’t say anything at first. He leaned against the doorway and watched as Huey put Mal’s diaper on. 

As soon as she was changed, Mal stopped crying. 

Elly clapped her hands together, making a delighted sound. 

“There,” Huey said to Dewey, “That’s how you do it.”

Dewey looked disgusted. “You should just do it. You’re the expert.”

Huey rolled his eyes, picking Mal up and holding her up on her tiny webbed feet. “You feel better now, Eleonora?” he asked her with a grin.

Mal just stared at him. 

“Actually,” Louie finally spoke up, “that’s Mallory.”

Huey and Dewey looked at him, surprised to see him awake and wondering how long he’d been standing there for. 

“Oh,” Huey said, embarrassed, “Right. Mallory.” He looked between his two nieces, clearly having trouble finding a difference to tell them apart. 

“How was your sleep?” Dewey asked. 

“Good,” Louie replied honestly. He stretched out his back. “And you guys haven’t burned the house down, so I’d say you’re not doing half bad.” A lot better than he expected, truthfully. 

“Hey!” exclaimed Huey, “Although I can’t say the same for Dewford—“

“Hey!” Dewey exclaimed this time. 

“But I just changed a gross, smelly diaper without complaining and I did a perfect job,” Huey said. 

Then his phone dinged with a text. Huey shifted Mal to his other hip and reached into his pocket. 

He frowned. “Hey, where’s my phone?”

Dewey blinked. 

Huey’s eyes widened and slowly, he looked at Mal. 

Louie burst out laughing.  
________________________

“You guys don’t have to stay the night, you know,” Louie said, while washing the dishes in the sink. 

“You can say that as many times as you want, you’re not changing our minds,” said Dewey. 

Louie handed him a plate. Dewey dried it with a towel and put it back in the cupboard. 

Huey was in the living room with the girls. They could hear him playing peek-a-boo with them, Elly’s laughter flooding the air. Mal was laughing too. 

“You guys have already done enough,” Louie tried again. 

“You’re not changing our minds!” Huey called from the living room. 

Louie sighed. “Honestly, you—“

“—know when you’re being too stubborn to ask for help,” Dewey cut him off. He smiled at him. “We’re staying for as long as you need us.”

Louie swallowed the sudden emotion in his throat, turning away quickly and blinking rapidly. Dewey watched him, still smiling, and Louie swore he’d never loved his brother more than he did in that moment. 

“Thanks,” he finally said, quietly. 

“No thanks necessary, baby bro,” Dewey responded, turning back to the stack of wet dishes to dry. 

Louie ducked his head to hide his grin. “We’re both 20. I don’t see how I still qualify as ‘baby bro’ after all these years.”

Dewey smirked at him. “You’ll always be the baby.”

Louie’s grin widened. “I’m not a baby.”

He was glad he was.

And Dewey knew that. 

After a moment, they both heard something strange coming from the living room. 

“...You see this? This is called the ‘x variable’, often used to represent—“

“Huey, are you reading our old math textbook from grade nine to my kids?” Louie called, pretending to sound annoyed when really, he was amused. 

“What?!” Huey called back, panicked. Louie heard him drop something—that sounded suspiciously like a book—followed by the girls’ giggling. “Noooo. No, of course not, that’d be silly, hahaha...” he laughed nervously. 

Louie and Dewey grinned at each other. 

He never was a very good liar.


End file.
